The games all feature a simple click-button interface requiring the player to determine the correct combination of buttons to click to maximize visual reward and ultimately to achieve the good ending.
Positive reviews have emphasized the games' simple whimsy and innocent aesthetics and the creativity of the underlying concept.
By keeping track of which buttons have which effects on the other parts of the game world, the player can home in on the good ending by maximizing the visual reward.
[10] Upon release, On decided to retain the "ver.3" part of the title rather than naming the game simply GROW as he had originally intended.
[11] After receiving numerous questions regarding why the GROW series seemed to begin with "ver.3" instead of "ver.1" and where "ver.1" and "ver.2" could be located, On decided to recreate new reduced versions[10] for ver.2 and ver.1 which he released in that order in June and December 2006 respectively.
With growing English, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, and French interest in the games, On translated the website into the relevant languages in April 2009.
On has stated on Twitter that the last backup made of the website was in 2016, and that the server administrator was too busy to fix the issue.
[24] Industry insiders including game developers Dave Grossman[25] and Spry Fox have also praised the series.